First Choice and Tui said on Friday morning they were ready to sell one of their Irish businesses in order to avoid a monopoly arising from their proposed merger, ahead of a ruling later today from the European Commission on consolidation in the package holiday industry.

The companies, who are planning on creating a London-listed plc with an enterprise value in excess of £4bn ($8bn), said the issue of potential dominance in Ireland was raised on Thursday at a meeting with the commission’s competition case team.